HEAVY MAKE-UP (REVAMPED)
by arcticzydrate
Summary: I'm not good with descriptions. I promise this is gonna be more interesting than it looks, and it gets better/longer as it goes. Name of the chapter is who's POV it is from!
1. Mary

The soft, woodsy smell of books always made Mary feel empty nowadays. It used to be a source of comfort, the warm room, the never-ending shelves, the silence. The peace.

It had gone from being a sanctuary to a prison of sorts- What had once been her escape was now making her feel trapped. The books that once made her forget the suppressing loneliness now shoved the fact into her face, reminded her that she

But it wasn't her fault for not having many friends. Nobody in Mineral Town was suitable... Karen seemed really stuck up, as did Ann. Popuri was okay, but really dumb. Elli was too serious.. although Mary was sure the other girls had similar opinions of her. She wasn't though- she was just really shy! Why didn't they come visit her at the library? On that note...why didn't anybody visit the library?

Day after day, for the past few years, she sat alone, browsing the books she had already read tens, no, hundreds of times. Books that used to make her bawl turned into last resorts, something to keep her from dozing off on the job, in case anybody ever did show up. Not that that was likely. In all honestly, she was worried about how much longer she could keep the library open. Luckily, her parents were paying to keep the electricity on, but how much longer could she mooch off of them? She was almost a fully grown woman. Her mother, Anna, was expecting her to get married soon. But to who? She barely had contact with anybody other than her parents and Jeff, the strange, butler-esque man who ran the Supermarket and constantly complained about his stomach problems.

She didn't want the library to be shut down. Sure, she had read everything, and it wasn't like it would be missed by anybody in the town- but the nostalgia kept her from feeling completely empty. Maybe change would be good. Maybe she could use it as inspiration to write a story… if only she could write well enough to make some real money. To get out of Mineral Town.


	2. Claire

This had to be some sort of joke. There was no _fucking _way Claire, strong, sensible Claire, had let herself get tricked by this little weasel man and his tiny-ass town. She had thrown everything away in hopes of an adventure. And what did she get? A field full of weeds and a shack that smelled like death. Oh, and a brain dead puppy. Was this some sick metaphor for her life? She always did this. Always hoped for the best and received the worst… honestly, she probably deserved this. There was nothing else to do but try and make something of herself here- nobody knew her, so it's not as if she had a bad reputation… she hardly had any money though. She'd be damned if she'd give into scavenging around a god damn mountain for resources. Sighing, she left the farm to see who she could earn some pity (and in turn, some handouts) from.

Arriving at what seemed to be one of the largest buildings in the area, she pulled open the heavy door. Widening her eyes and hunching her shoulders in order to seem shy, she took a small step forward. But it was no use, the place was basically empty- or so she thought, until she was approached by your typical teen girl. Large bust, long dirty blonde hair, light green eyes, tan. The works.

"Hey! You're Claire, right?" she asked. Claire whipped her head up. She had hardly been here for a day! "It's okay," the girl laughed. "You know how small this town is. New people are rare, and rumors travel quickly. Claire sighed with relief, and tuned out the chatty girl's stereotypical welcome-to-town speech. Running home, she planted the seeds she was given.

It was night already- nothing to do but go inside. She grabbed the puppy and dragged him inside, plopping onto the incredibly small mattress. Was that the only way to describe anything in this town? Tiny? Miniscule? This was fucking ridiculous. She turned to the small (there was that FUCKING adjective again) dog, and let out what must have been her hundredth sigh of the day. "I may as well give you a name," she muttered at the helpless beagle. "It's Raoul. And you know what, Raoul? Tomorrow, I'm going to find a friend to be my new patron- everybody here is so nice. It won't be too hard to fool them.


	3. Mary 2

_BUZZ! BUZZ! _

Of course. 6 am sharp, and it was time to get up and be productive. Disgusting.

Basil strutted into the room. "HAPPY MONDAY," he boomed, yanking the covers off of Mary. "HURRY UP, I HEARD THERE WERE MORE MOON DROPS BY THE MOUNTAIN FROM TRENT." Mary groaned and rolled onto the floor. She acted like she was grumpy, but in truth, she was grateful for the weekly trip to the mountains. It was the only way she could get out of town and away from the silence of the library without seeming… ungrateful. Throwing on a more casual version of her Victorian-style outfit and pulling her hair back into a braid, she listened in to her parents' conversation.

"…There's no way it isn't a scam, Basil."

"Why would it be? Nobody from the city even knows about this town, let alone cares enough to try and take any money from it."

"Well, _somebody_ had to know about it in order for that new girl to arrive."

Mary perked up immediately. New girl? Somebody else in the town? It was rare for them to even get visitors. What if she liked to read? Should she keep the library open, just in case…? No, no the sign said Closed Mondays, it would be obvious that she was desperate for a visitor. She could hardly pay attention to any of her parents' chatter as she gulped down some grape juice. Why was she so concerned? The new girl probably wouldn't even talk to her. It wasn't worth getting worked up about.


	4. Claire 2

_BUZZ! BUZZ!_

"What the FUCK?!" Claire shouted aloud, falling out of what should really be considered a cot rather than a bed. She hadn't realized a fully functioning alarm clock had come with the house. Why the hell should she be awake any earlier than 8 o'clock?

She check the time. "Six? SIX AM. SIX IN THE MORNING. I CAN NOT BELIEVE THIS."

Outraged, she yanked the plug from the outlet and crammed herself back into the bed. Just as she became comfortable, Raoul came up and began licking her face, preventing her from falling back asleep.

She angrily sat up. "Fuck off, mutt," she muttered, tossing him onto the floor. Immediately regretting it, she pet his head and stood up, stretching. Blinking and yawning, she looked at the small table. It had a rice ball on it, and never one to waste food, she gobbled it up immediately. Reflecting on the weird, sour aftertaste, it struck her that she hadn't place that there. Where had it come from? Did she just eat food leftover from the dead man? What if he had eaten on it? FUCKING DISGUSTING.

She ran outside, retching all over her shitty little yard. She felt better at first, but her mood was worsened when she realized that her now-empty stomach was making some strange noises.

It was too early for any of the stores to be open, so she was stuck with no other option than to look around the surrounding woods for a meal. Perhaps she could find something to sell, too…

Grumbling even more, she threw a leash around Raoul and began jogging towards the end of the field. Actually, the field was huge now that she looked at it- it was just all the god damn weeds that made it intolerable…

The scenery wasn't too bad the further from town she got- some of the flowers were actually quite nice. Too bad the weather was unbearably humid, and it smelled like a candle shop. She noticed a hairy, burly man staring at a tree stump- he was hideous, no way he was married. Potential sugar daddy?

Running her hands through her hair, she skipped up to him. "Hi, I'm-"

"I know who you are." The man glared down at her. "Everybody knows. Rich city girl, we get it, no need to show off." Claire shook her head, confused. Who thought she was rich? "Look here, city girl," the man continued. "You ever get tired of that money, you come see me. I build shit. Your house? I can make that bigger. Your barn? I can double the size. My house is right over there."

Claire blinked a few times, and backed away.

Why was everybody acting so hostile…?


	5. Mary 3

Mary peered up from behind a row of Toy Flowers. Was that her? The new girl?

She had the brightest hair she'd ever seen. It had to have been dyed. And look at those eyes! They looked like Blue Magic Flowers. This girl was so pretty- Mary bet that this was what the fabled Harvest Goddess looked like. She looked like the models for the shopping channel! Or one of the females that Kai raved about hitting it off with from the city. Well, she was a city girl.

The girl went right up to Gotz- she was brave, too! Mary felt a pang of jealousy, immediately followed with longing. She wanted to be this girl… right? That's what this feeling was. Maybe she just really wanted a friend. She had the girl on her mind all day. She had to find out more about her.

But wasn't that a bit obsessive? Wanting so desperately to befriend somebody who would barely glance at her. She would probably click with Karen and that would be the end of it. She and Kai would probably hit it off, and Popuri and Elli would finally have nobody else to talk to _but _Mary… so either way this turned out, she would have somebody to talk to soon enough.

Was that manipulative thinking, though? What if Elli and Popuri didn't need anybody else? What if they turned to Ann? What if Mary really wasn't meant to socialize, with anybody? Sighing as she always did, she went to work on her novel. It was rather stereotypical, a young woman was lonely and sad, until she was rescued by a handsome young suitor with plenty of money.

She was having a hard time though, trying to find the right word to use to describe the girl's family. Obnoxious was too obvious, loud was too simple… Mary teared up. This was just one of many times in which she had an amazing idea, but lacked the capacity to share that idea. She was just a huge disappointment.

A ringing interrupted her thinking- not to mention scared the mess out of her. Was that the doorbell? Was that really the doorbell? She jerked up, shoving her glasses back onto her face and brushing her hair back.

"W-welcome to the Mineral Town Library! The one and only, here for all yo-"she cut herself off, realizing that it was the new girl. Oh, crap oh crap oh crap. Her makeup was still smudged from her miniature breakdown. Way to make a good first impression. She also realize she had left her mouth open. Clamping her jaw shut and turning bright red, she looked down.

"Uh… hey. I'm Claire!" the girl said. Claire. What a cool name. The name of a princess, or maybe a rockstar.

"Oh.. I'm… I'm Mary…" Mary kicked herself internally. How was she supposed to make friends when she couldn't even pronounce her own name?

"Is everything alright?" Claire asked, brightly.

Mary looked up again. This beautiful, strange girl cared about _her_?

"I'm… fine. I'm writing a story and it's a lot harder than I thought it would be."

CRAP. Why had she been honest? Time and time again she was making herself look like an idiot.

"Oh, really?" Claire raised an eyebrow. "That's incredible. I'm sure you'll do great, you look like a great author!"

Mary felt herself flush yet again, and this time a strange, tingling feeling went through her. When was the last time anybody had complimented her?

"I, uh… thanks!" she fought hard to keep the quaver from her voice. "Did you need help with anything?"

"Actually, yeah! I was wondering if you had any books on famous sociopaths, murderers, politicians, things like that. Compulsive lying kind of stuff." Claire grinned sheepishly. "That probably sounds worse than it is. It's just that- no offense- this town is boring as hell. I need something for rainy days."

More than happy to help anybody with something book related- especially this fascinating new girl- Mary hopped up and showed Claire a few different books.

"Fuckin' rad." Claire looked at the stack of books. "What's the return policy on this shit?"

Mary stopped in her tracks- almost nobody ever checked out books, and certainly nobody ever asked. She wanted the girl to come back, so should she make it earlier? No, because then the girl wouldn't return after that.

"Uh… any time before Summer is fine!" she squeaked out. "And honestly, if you want, I can hold these to the side for you, you could just take one or two home- on rainy days you could come here- I'm one of the people who keeps my place open and-" she stopped herself before saying anything even more humiliating. There went her chances.

"That sounds fantastic!" Claire dumped a good half of the books back onto Mary's desk. "I'll be sure to come back for more if these are good!" winking, she left the library.

Mary stood still for nearly 10 minutes. Had that really happened? Not only did Claire introduce herself, _and_ compliment her- she had promised to come back! Was this reality?


	6. Claire 3

Claire rolled her eyes. The trip to the library had been much easier than she'd estimated- and the girl that worked there (was it Mabel? Meredith? Mary, that was it) was clearly intimidated by her. She had checked out these books for tips on how to con people into helping her, but if she could keep up the rich city girl façade, Mary could very well be her answer to lazing out on actual work. Whatever the case, it wouldn't hurt to flip through the books.

She opened up the first one- and immediately closed it to re-examine the cover. "Basil's Guide to the Harvest Sprites?" she read aloud."What the fuck is a Harvest Sprite?" There must have been some mix-up with the books. She'd just look into it later; it wasn't that big of a deal.

Finally arriving back at her shitty farm, she put the books on the front step and looked around the farm. This was insane- had the old man gone senile and forgotten to take care of his farm, or was the farm just prone to growing things wildly? If it were the latter, then it would be annoying clearing weeds, but an easy job to grow crops and make some money. She didn't wanna clear all of that shit on her own, however… Claire smirked as an idea crept into her head.

Claire arrived at the library, book in tow. Without even bothering to knock or ring the bell, she walked right up to Mary's desk, where Mary appeared to be working hard on her story. Claire wondered fleetingly what she would right about- probably different types of birds or something. She seemed like a total dweeb.

"Hey, Mary!" she grinned. Mary looked up quickly, adjusting her glasses and sitting straight.

"Uh…hey. Y-you read that pretty quickly." She stammered out. Pathetic.

"Actually, you gave me the wrong book!" Fucking idiot, she thought, biting her lip a little, reminding herself to keep it cool.

"O-oh! I'm so sorry!" Turning a deep red, Mary scurried over to Claire and grabbed the book back. "Oh, you know, my father wrote this! He loves Mineral Town's myths and stories. He swears he met the Harvest Goddess once!" Claire nodded intently, suppressing the urge to roll her eyes and tell Mary that she didn't care.

"That's really awesome! By the way, ah, when do you get off of… work? I thought maybe you could help me pick out some crops that would be good for starter plants. Since you know soo much about plants?" Claire giggled. Hell, if Mary where a guy, this would definitely be Class-A flirting.

Mary flushed yet again at the compliment. "Um, actually… I'm usually pretty busy, but not many people are out and about today. I could go now- if that works for you." Claire was willing to bet her entire farm that Mary had just blatantly lied, but she wasn't gonna turn down the opportunity to get help where she could. "Sounds fantastic!" She chirped. "Let's go!"


	7. Sasha

It was just another boring Wednesday at the shop for Sasha. Zack in the morning, Karen slinking off to escape doing any work, and Jeff complaining nonstop about his stomach. If he didn't shut up, she'd slip something into his dinner that would give him a real stomachache… but enough of those thoughts. She wouldn't want to carelessly go through with them.

The bell rang as the large front door swung open- Sasha assumed it was just Elli, come to grab enough food to make her infamous whatever-she-could-afford-that-week sandwiches, whether it be macaroni or rice, and on one misfortunate occasion, chocolate. You'd think a doctor's assistant would know better.

However, the sound of multiple footsteps caused her to look up- and she saw, much to her surprise, Mary step in, followed by the new girl everybody in town had been whispering about. Mary, willingly coming to the Supermarket? This might prove to be interesting.

"H-hi," Mary muttered. "W-we um… she uh- this is um," Mary seemed to have an impossible time getting words out, which wasn't surprising. The poor girl hardly had any social skills.

"I'm Claire!" the blonde girl interjected cheerfully. "I stopped by earlier, and met your- daughter?- Karen, right? I decided to come back and pick out some seeds to get started!"

Sasha raised an eyebrow. This girl seemed pretty friendly for somebody that came from the city only to be shammed and scammed by Thomas. Nonetheless, she was a paying customer, and the customer was always right. Or something.

"Well, it's nice to finally meet you, sweetheart! I'm Sasha, the er, unofficial mastermind behind this shop. Anything I can help you with, just let me know!"

Claire nodded joyfully and dragged Mary over to the seed display. Sasha pretended to sweep around the register, while keeping an ear open.

"Mary, what seeds should I get? I'm looking for profits, not food, remember!"

Mary stammered some response and picked up a white bag. "These are turnips, I don't remember how much they sell for but a book in the library said that-"she rambled on. Claire's face was on the turnip sack, but Sasha could tell she wasn't listening to Mary. Her eyes were, in fact, on a rucksack for sale near the storage aisle. Sasha watched still as Claire hugged Mary ("you're the best! I'm so glad I have you to help me!") And Mary flushed. She seemed unable to stop doing that today.

Claire waltzed up to the register. "I'd like to purchase these seeds, please!" Jeff, who had been nodding off, jerked his head up and scrambled around for his log. "One moment, please!" Sasha elbowed her way in front of him. "I've got it," she gave what she hoped was a warm smile. After making the transaction, Claire let out a seeming wail of despair.

"W-what's wrong?" Mary asked. "I don't have any space in my rucksack for these seeds!" Claire whined, trying to rearrange things. She looked up. "Mary, do you think you could-" Mary turned red, this time with embarrassment. "W-well you see… my- my bag is full of… books." Claire's shoulders slumped.

"I could buy a larger rucksack- but- that's all of my money- oh, no, how would I eat tomorrow?" Claire seemed nearly frantic- Sasha noted that it was a slightly dramatic reaction for not having a method of transportation. Really, they were just seeds.

Mary perked up. "I could- I um… if you want…" she hardly got the words out before Claire grinned. "Oh, Mary, would you really? I would totally pay you back, but it would take a month or so to get the right amount of money-"Mary's eyes widened. "N-no, don't worry about it. I'd forget it by then anyway…"

Claire hugged Mary. "You're fantastic!" Once the rucksack was bought, Claire looked miserable still. "It still isn't big enough." She pouted. "Do you think you could help me carry some? Like, hold them. "

Mary was taken aback. "I mean, I'd have to close up the library, and nobody else would be able to-"

"Thanks Mary!" Claire dumped some seed packets into Mary's arms and took off, Mary struggling to keep up.

Sasha smirked a little. Mary's mother may not like to hear gossip about her own daughter getting tricked like that- but she was sure Manna would just _die _hearing about what happened.


End file.
